NDMC proposes salary of Rs 90,000 for counillors

New Delhi: NDMC House today proposed a monthly salary of Rs 90,000 for its councillors even as the cash-strapped civic body has not yet quite recovered from the impact of the 16-day strike by its employees demanding payment of salaries, which ended yesterday.

BJP Councilor Yogender Chandolia said Rs 90,000 is just one-fourth of Rs 3.6 lakh paid to an MLA in Delhi as salary and allowances.

The House of North Delhi Municipal Corporation today finalised the revised budget estimates for the current year and estimates for the 2016-17, including the proposal for introducing a monthly salary of Rs 90,000 and hiking the meeting allowance for councillors to Rs 1,000 per meeting.

At present, the NDMC councillors are not paid any salary. They are, however, paid Rs 300 for participation in meetings of the municipal corporation, with a ceiling of Rs 3,000 in a month.

The proposed salary and hike in meeting allowance will come into effect only after the Delhi government’s approval.

The proposal for salary hike, moved by Leader of House in the BJP-ruled corporation, Yogender Chandolia and other councillors, said Rs 90,000 is just one-fourth of Rs 3.6 lakh paid to an MLA in Delhi as salary and allowances.

In his budget speech, Chandolia also highlighted the financial crisis faced by the civic body and demanded that the AAP government give it fund for covering the estimated budget deficit of Rs 612 crore in the current fiscal.

“In 2015-16, NDMC spent Rs 2,200 crore on paying salaries and pensions while the Delhi government provided only Rs 890 crore to it,” he said.

He also asserted the civic body will not stick to the conditions imposed by the Delhi government while extending a loan for payment of salaries to the striking employees.

A loan of Rs 551 crore was given by the Delhi government to the strike-hit NDMC and EDMC to pay salaries to their employees with certain conditions including retrenchment and ban on new hiring of sanitation workers and other class IV employees.